But it's not just the big entrenched players. Reader Tor sends over the troubling news that a group of indie labels in Spain are suing the government for "negligence" in failing to stop file sharing. Specifically, they're really upset about the rulings that have found personal, non-commercial file-sharing is legal. They want the right to sue their biggest fans. Apparently, they haven't been paying attention to how that's worked (i.e., it hasn't) elsewhere:

"The measure would not resolve the most relevant problem, which is the actual impossibility of us taking civil action against those final users who appropriate music without paying, and systematically violate intellectual property rights," he adds.

"We think the Administration is responsible for our plight," says Carton. "We demand that the government take effective measures imminently to protect the rights and interests of the record industry, as well as the intellectual property rights of the agents that intervene in the creative musical process within Internet."

This is pretty disappointing. Last year, I actually bought a bunch of CDs (yes, physical CDs) from an indie label in Spain that I only heard about after a friend sent me some MP3s suggesting I might like a couple of the bands on the label. After checking out their websites (and being able to listen to some of the songs) I ended up ordering a bunch of CDs from the label. Just last week, I bought two more albums (downloads, via CDBaby) from the same label. Yet, according to these labels (and I can't tell if the label whose CDs I purchased is part of the lawsuit), they would have been better off suing my friend. Indie labels should be leading the way here: focusing on giving fans real reasons to buy, rather than suing the government for not putting up more protectionist barriers to pretend it can hold back what the technology allows.

Reader Comments

Sometimes I think that a majority of the problem is that people think the government is some all powerful entity that can do anything regardless of how impossible it actually is. They have problems and the government is supposed to some how step in, wave a magic stick, and boom everything is flawlessly solved. The big and small labels want the government to come up with some foolproof way to stop all forms of file sharing, its impossible, but they think if they tell the government to do it then its magically going to get done and be possible. If these labels would add value to their songs, give me a reason to buy, file sharing as a "problem" WILL disappear because it will then be the solution.

Wow. This is just crazy! Think about this. A copyright is a government granted monopoly. These musicians are suing the government because they feel their government gravy train does not earn them enough money.

Here's an idea. Stop sucking off the government's teat and earn your living through making and selling a great product people are willing to buy. If the only way you can get customers to pay is by suing them, you're doing something drastically wrong.

Of course someone will say that the government needs to protect these musicians from theft. That's not how copyright works. Copyright is not a property right. Once again, copyright is a government granted monopoly. And the government in Spain has limited the monopoly to be very pro-citizen. Thus, there is simply nothing for the government to protect.

Bigger problem

Sounds like the bigger problem is that people are mad that the government said something is legal...

That would be like me suing the US for allow blacks and whites to drink out of the same faucet. Or suing the gov because of women's suffrage, or suing for allowing freedom of speech/press or anything else that we have deemed legal...

I'm surprised you are focusing on the copyright portion of it because the concept of suing over laws you disagree with seems more interesting to me.

Here the list of labels involved:
Pias Records Spain, Popstock, K-Industria Cultural, Producciones Blau, Bcore Disc, Blanco y Negro Music, Discmedi, Distribuciones Disclub, Fonogramas Metropol, Ok Records, Columna Música, Gorvijac Music, Kasba Music, Meta Network, Música Global Discográfica, Open Records y Picap
(from http://www.elpais.com/articulo/cultura/discograficas/independientes/alzan/Gobierno/elpepicul/2010013 0elpepicul_1/Tes)
For instance Pias Records distributes Tom Waits and Franz Ferdinand, Popstock distributes Radiohead.
Anyway BCore Disc and Kasba Music later stepped down when they found out that the manifest was asking for fnal users to be punished (from http://www.publico.es/culturas/291255/division/sellos/independientes).
In any case these are just a very small fraction of the spanish indie labels and if you ask me they're not the ones actually helping spanish music or music in general for hat matter, so I don't believe those CDs you got were coming from them. The claim got some media attention, though...

Re: Irony

It's that there has to be some sort of irony or "catch 22" in there somewhere. The government is elected by "the people" and is supposed to represent the interests of "the people". So when they sue the government they are suing "the people". "The people" are the ones who are file sharing, the people are the ones who elected the government, who is supposed to represent "the people" and not business. The government is supposed to protect "the people" from being exploited by business.

More and more I wish there was some way of bypassing labels and paying artists directly.

I'm finding it increasingly difficult to morally justify purchasing music and films these days, knowing the kind of corrupt campaigns my money will be used to fund (campaigns where anyone who dares to stand up and object gets accused of being a freeloading criminal).

I would liken the whole scenario to an abusive personal relationship, but you know what? There are people you can turn to in those kinds of situations. Here, with increasing regularity, the authorities side with the abuser. I can only hope the Spanish government continues to stand up for the people it represents.

Crazy

This is total insanity.

You actually bought some of those little plastic disks? What do you do with them? They do not fit into my USB, SD, or XD card slots. I thought people got them for decoration, but they always seemed to me to be something that just takes up space.

I hear there is some kind of box you can put them into that will allow you to turn them into mp3's, but in some places, that is arguably illegal, so downloading them seems like a better option.

Sue your fans: make more money

I deal a lot with spanish bands and bookers and I think the indie scene in Barcelona is one of the most vibrant and innovative on the planet BUT there will be always people who look to others to solve their problems.

Do these represent the spanish indie scene that Ive gotten to know for the last decade? No.

Manu Chao's buddies in Barca have a music/social cause website that promotes indie music from spain and elsewhere in europe: http://www.radiochango.com/ It is one of many sites where you can find bands that share a common love of music and similar ethos. Many of these bands have gotten to where they are through word of mouth, tape trading (yup, the Grateful Dead idea of sharing live music is alive) and many other social forms.

I just hope that these idiots dont tarnish all the fine indie musicians, labels amnd music lovers of Spain with the same dumbdumb brushstroke.